System and method for creating a customer account

ABSTRACT

An electronic auction system may include a bid validator connected between a network and a customer database. The example bid validator may receive bid information from a customer over the network. The example bid validator may use the bid information to detect whether the customer database includes a customer record for the customer. If no customer record is found in the customer database, the example bid validator may initiate creation of a new customer record and place it in the customer database.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of pending U.S. application Ser. No.10/316,326, filed Dec. 10, 2002, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/706,849, filed Nov. 7, 2000, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/624,259 filed Mar. 29,1996, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,691, which applications areincorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to copending U.S. application Ser. No.10/316,296, entitled “Method and System for Offering an Item for SaleUsing a User-Selectable Bid Indicia”, filed Dec. 10, 2002; U.S.application Ser. No. 10/316,292, entitled “Method and System forAutomatically Adjusting a Posted Selling Price”, filed Dec. 10, 2002;U.S. application Ser. No. 10/316,325, entitled “Method and System forPerforming a Bid Quantity Adjustment”, filed Dec. 10, 2002; U.S.application Ser. No. 10/318,676, entitled “Method and System forPerforming a Buy or Bid Auction”, filed Dec. 13, 2002; U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/319,868, entitled “Method and System for Providing StatusUpdates”, filed Dec. 13, 2002; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/319,869,entitled “Method and System for Adjusting a Close Time of an Auction”,filed Dec. 13, 2002; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/316,324, entitled“Method and System for Performing a Progressive Auction”, filed Dec. 10,2002; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/316,297, entitled “Method and Systemfor Performing Proxy Bidding”, filed Dec. 10, 2002; U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/316,298, entitled “Method and System for ProvidingSimultaneous On-Line Auctions”, filed Dec. 10, 2002; and U.S.application Ser. No. 10/316,293, entitled “Method and System forUpdating Information On a Merchandise Catalog Page”, filed Dec. 10,2002, each commonly assigned with the present invention and incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce and moreparticularly to conducting an interactive auction over an electronicnetwork.

2. Background of the Invention

Auctions usually take the form of a physical gathering of biddersassembled together within an auction house. Interested bidders simplyappear at the appointed time and place and bid on merchandise in whichthey are interested.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in theaccompanying drawings in which like references include similar elementsand in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computer environment for implementingthe system and method of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary merchandise catalog page offering anitem for sale via electronic auction on the Internet's World Wide Web;

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary bid form for bidding on an auction item;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of components illustrating an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary bid validator and itsmethod of operation;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary auction manager and itsmethod of operation;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary bid manager and itsmethod of operation;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary electronic mailmessenger and its method of operation;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary standard auction formatand its method of operation;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary Dutch auction formatand its method of operation;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary progressive auctionformat and its method of operation;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary buy or bid sale formatand its method of operation;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary bid quantitydetermination and its method of operation; and

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary markdown priceadjustment and its method of operation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method for creating a customer account are disclosed. Inthe following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, toone skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details.

An exemplary system includes a database for maintaining descriptions ofthe merchandise for auction, the bids, and other relevant information ina commercially available database system. Database searches may beperformed periodically to check for new items to be made visible topotential bidders. Such periodic searching allows an individual chargedwith maintaining this system to load relevant information into thedatabase at his or her leisure. Once the database is loaded withinformation about the item and the item is scheduled for presentation topotential bidders, the system takes the merchandise information andcreates a human readable catalog page for a viewing over a publicnetwork such as the Internet's World Wide Web. Bidders are then able toview the new item for auction and to place their bids. These catalogpages preferably contain the current high bid, bid increment, quantityavailable, merchandise description, and picture of the item.

Upon accessing a public network and seeing an item's catalog page, thebidder may press a button on the catalog page or take some similaraction which causes a bid form to be displayed on the screen. The bidderthen enters the information necessary to place a bid, such as their nameand address, bid amount, payment information, etc., and then presses abid submission button, or takes a similar action which sends the bid tothe system.

The system receives the electronic bid information and places it in thebid database. Because this new bid will, in general, be a bid for ahigher amount than was last bid by another party, the system willregenerate the item's catalog page. This updated catalog page will thenshow the new high bid to any prospective bidders who later access thatcatalog page.

Because most bidders will not, in general, be accessing the network andviewing the merchandise catalog pages as they are updated with new highbids, the system may send electronic mail notifications to bidders whohave been outbid by the just-placed bid. These electronic mailnotification messages may contain the relevant merchandise information,the current high bid, the bid increment, etc., and encourage the bidderto submit a new and higher bid to outbid the current high bidder. Theseelectronic mail notification messages allow the bidder to enter a newbid by replying to the electronic mail message and sending it back tothe system.

Upon receiving a new or revised bid via electronic mail, the systemfollows the same set of actions as when the bidder places a bid usingthe electronic bid form when viewing a merchandise catalog page, namely,the system extracts the relevant bid information from the electronicmail message, deposits this information in the bid database, and thenupdates the merchandise catalog page as appropriate. Such an electronicmail message bid may further cause a new round of electronic mailnotifications to go out to the recently outbid bidders.

This process may continue until the system detects that the item isscheduled to be closed for further bidding or another closing trigger isdetected. At this point, the system closes the auction by updating themerchandise catalog page with the final winning bid information and bysending electronic mail notifications to both the winning bidder orbidders and the losing bidder or bidders.

The exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides an electronicauction method and system for presenting merchandise for sale at auctionto customers over an electronic network, such as the Internet's WorldWide Web. Potential customers are presented with a series of descriptivemerchandise catalog pages through which they may navigate to find items(lots) of interest. Upon finding a lot of interest, customers may clicka button on screen to display a form for placing a bid on the lot. Aftersubmitting this bid, the electronic auction system records the bid andupdates the lot's merchandise catalog page to show the current high bidor bids and to whom such bids are attributable. When the auction isclosed, after a period of no bidding activity, at a predetermined time,or when a desired sales volume is reached, the electronic auction systemnotifies the winning and losing bidders by electronic mail and posts alist of the winning bidders on the closed lot's merchandise catalogpage.

The exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be implemented asa computer program 248 running on a central server host computer 250,shown in FIG. 1, attached to a wide area network 275 accessible by manypotential customers through remote terminals 210. An exemplary networkfor implementing the present invention is the Internet which isaccessible by a significant percentage of the world population, althoughthe network may also be a local area or limited area accessible network.Potential customers are presented at screen 280 with merchandise catalogpages, such as the one shown in FIG. 2, generated by merchandise catalogpage generator 25 shown in FIG. 4. Each merchandise catalog pageincludes several action buttons 5 that allow the customer to move fromcatalog page to catalog page and to place bids using keyboard 240 andpointing device 260. The user may call up an index of availablemerchandise by pressing button 7 or may return to a central home page bypressing button 9.

By pressing bid button 1 in FIG. 2, the customer is presented with a bidform such as the one shown in FIG. 3. The customer fills out therequired information in the bid form and presses “Place Bid” button 2 tosend the bid to the electronic auction system for processing. Otherequivalent means for submitting a bid could be used, as understood bythose skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains.

FIG. 4 illustrates a high level block diagram of the electronic auctionsystem according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown,information from bid form 20 is received by the electronic auctionsystem where it is processed by bid validator 21. Bid validator 21examines the bid information entered by the customer on bid form 20 toensure that the bid is properly formatted, all necessary data ispresent, and the data values entered look credible. Exemplary functionsof bid validator 21 include verifying credit card information entered bythe customer, checking that a complete name and shipping address hasbeen entered, that the proper state abbreviation and zip code have beenentered, that an appropriate bid amount has been entered, and that atelephone or facsimile number has been entered. Once the bid informationhas been validated, the bid validator 21 places the bid in bid database31.

Auction manager 26 may frequently query the bid database 31 to see ifany new bids have been placed. If new bids are found during the query,then auction manager 26 calculates the current high bidder or biddersand instructs merchandise catalog page generator 25 to regenerate acatalog page with the updated bid information.

Auction manager 26 is also responsible for opening and closing auctions.This entails making merchandise lots available for bidding by customersand disabling their associated buy or bid features on the merchandisepages that have been posted to potential bidders but have closed. Whenauction manager 26 determines that a new lot should be opened forbidding or an available lot should be closed, it instructs merchandisecatalog page generator 25 to create or update the merchandise catalogpages for the appropriate lots.

Electronic mail messenger 27 frequently queries bid database 31 for bidsrecently marked by auction manager 26 as having been outbid or as havingwon an item in a recently closed auction. If such bids are found, theelectronic mail messenger 27 formats an appropriate electronic mailnotification message 24 and sends this message to the customer. Manycustomers read their electronic mail throughout the day, making this aconvenient mechanism for keeping them informed about the status ofmerchandise on which they are actively bidding. Bidders may reply to anelectronic mail notification message 24 informing them that they havebeen outbid by including an increased bid amount in the reply message.An electronic mail bid 22 sent in reply to the notification is receivedby the electronic auction system and processed by bid validator 21 asdescribed above.

FIG. 5 illustrates in detail an exemplary procedure of bid validation asaccomplished by bid validator 21 shown in FIG. 4. A bid is received bybid validator 21 and the customer is looked up at step 41 in customerdatabase 28. If no customer record exists for the customer then a newcustomer record is created 42 and placed in customer database 28. Fromthere, the bid information is validated 43 as previously described. Ifthe bid data includes one or more errors, then an error message isreturned 44 to the bidder, for example in the form of a well-formattedpage posted across the network, itemizing the errors found in the bid.If the bid is valid, as found in step 43, then the bid is placed 46 inbid database 31.

FIG. 6 provides a detailed illustration of exemplary procedures carriedout by auction manager 26. Auction manager 26 may be a continuouslyrunning system that begins by getting the current time as at step 51. Itthen checks to see if any new items for sale are to be opened byexamining the merchandise database to see if any new merchandise itemsare scheduled to be made available for bidding by customers at or beforethe current time. Operator 300, or some automated substitute, may uploadmerchandise and scheduling information to the database, as shown inFIG. 1. If new merchandise items are scheduled for posting, these itemsare opened for bidding 52. The auction manager then examines themerchandise database to see if any merchandise items are scheduled to beclosed from customer bidding. If so, these items are closed from bidding53. Auction manager 26 then examines the merchandise database to see ifany merchandise items posted with a price markdown feature are scheduledto have their prices adjusted. If so, the prices of these items areadjusted 54 in accordance with the particular item's price adjustmentparameters. Such parameters may include bidding activity over time,amount of bids received, and number of items bid for. Auction manager 26then updates 55 the bid list for open items by recalculating the currenthigh bidder list and regenerating the merchandise catalog pages 56 toreflect these new bids. This step is more fully described below withreference to FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 illustrates exemplary procedures carried out by the bid managerin updating the bid list for open items 55 as shown in FIG. 6. The bidmanager begins by checking 61 if there are more merchandise items to beprocessed. If such items are found, the bid manager selects 62 amerchandise item to process and queries 64 the bid database for bids forthis item. These bids are sorted 65 using a variety of differentpriority ranking schemes depending upon the auction method and systemused for the particular merchandise item, as described in more detailbelow. Then, the bids are marked 66 as either successful or unsuccessfuldepending upon the bid price of the respective bids and the quantity ofthe item being bid on relative to the quantity of the item beingauctioned. In an exemplary embodiment, a quantity of an item may be putup for auction, and individual bidders may bid on any quantity of theitem desired, up to the quantity of the item being auctioned.

The bid manager then checks 67 to see if there are any active proxy bidsmarked as unsuccessful. A proxy bid is a special bid type that allowsauction manager 26 to automatically bid on the bidder's behalf up to alimited amount established by the bidder when his or her initial bid isplaced. The auction manager will increase the bid as necessary up to thelimit amount. This feature allows the customer to get the lowestpossible price without exceeding a limit preferably established when thebid is entered. If there are active proxy bids marked as unsuccessful,then the bid manager increments 69 the proxy bids by a preset bidincrement. This procedure of sorting 65 marking 66 bids and incrementing69 the proxy bids as required continues until either there are noadditional proxy bids marked as unsuccessful or the proxy limits havebeen reached on the proxy bids. At this point, bid database 31 isupdated 68 with the marked bids. This process is then repeated for eachmerchandise lot open at the current time for bidding by customers.

FIG. 8 illustrates exemplary procedures carried out by electronic mailmessenger 27 which notifies bidders when they have been outbid. Whenmarked bids are updated in bid database 31 as shown in FIG. 7,electronic mail messenger 27 detects 81 the presence of these markedbids and then looks up 82 the customer's electronic mail address andlooks up 83 inventory information on the item desired by the bidder.With this information, electronic mail messenger 27 constructs 84 anelectronic mail message informing the bidder that he or she has beenoutbid. Once constructed, the electronic mail notification message 24 issent to the bidder as shown at step 85.

Various components of the electronic auction system can communicatebetween themselves in a variety of ways. In an exemplary embodiment, bidvalidator 21, auction manager 26, and electronic mail messenger 27communicate by adding, marking, and updating records in the variousdatabases. Each of these components periodically checks at least one ofthe databases to see if anything relevant to their respective functionshas changed and take action accordingly. However, the components couldsend direct messages between themselves or call each other by means ofprogram subroutines to signal important events that would require one orthe other component to update its state.

A variety of different auction formats may be implemented using thebasic technique described above. The simplest is the “Standard Auction”format, whereby the electronic auction system awards the merchandise tothe top bidder or bidders in accordance with their bids once bidding hasstopped. Using this format, if there is a plurality of a specific item,the system awards the merchandise to the top bidders. Bidders may bid onmore than one unit, and different successful bidders will, in general,pay different prices for an item.

FIG. 9 illustrates the exemplary Standard Auction format where bidmanager 55, shown in FIG. 6, determines which bids to mark as successfulor unsuccessful, as shown in step 66 in FIG. 7. Bid manager 55 begins bysorting 91 the bids by amount of the bid. If there are bids remaining tobe processed, determined at step 97, the highest remaining bid isselected 98 to be checked. If the bid is below the minimum bid allowedfor the particular merchandise item, as determined at step 93, the bidis marked 99 as unsuccessful. If not, the bid is checked 94 to see ifthe quantity may be satisfied. A bid may be satisfied if the quantity ofthe item bid upon is available. This information is available fromauction database 29. If not, then the bid is marked 99 as unsuccessful.Optionally, the system could ask the user if a lesser quantity than bidupon will be acceptable, as shown in FIG. 2 at box 310. If the bidquantity can be satisfied, as determined at step 94, then the bid ismarked 95 as successful and the item quantity remaining, recorded inauction database 29, is decremented 96 by the bid quantity. After thequantity remaining is decremented 96, and if, as determined at step 97,there are still bids remaining to be marked, the next highest bid isselected 98 and the steps of FIG. 9 are repeated.

The exemplary electronic auction system of the present invention alsoprovides a “Dutch Auction” format, wherein the electronic auction systemawards the merchandise to all of the top bidders for whom there isavailable inventory at the price bid by the lowest successful bidder.This format may be preferred by customers for being the most fair when aplurality of a specific item is being auctioned. As with all bidding,there will be a range of bids submitted. In the Dutch Auction format,the highest bidders are awarded the merchandise but at the same pricefor all successful bidders, the price bid by the lowest successfulbidder.

FIG. 10 illustrates the exemplary Dutch Auction format whereby bidmanager 55 shown in FIG. 6 determines which bids to mark 66 assuccessful or unsuccessful, as shown in FIG. 7. Bid manager 55 begins bysorting 111 the bids by amount of the bid. If there are bids remainingto be processed, as determined at step 97 the highest bid is selected 98to be checked. If the bid is below the minimum bid allowed for theparticular merchandise item, as determined at step 93, the bid is markedas unsuccessful 99. If not, the bid is checked 94 to see if the bidquantity may be satisfied. If the bid cannot be satisfied, then the bidis marked as unsuccessful at step 99. If the bid quantity can besatisfied, then the bid is marked as successful at step 95 and the itemquantity remaining is decremented 96 by the bid quantity. At this timethe MinWin price is recorded 117. The MinWin price is the price abovewhich a new bidder must bid in order to be successful in the DutchAuction format were the auction to close at that moment. The MinWinprice is, in general, the bid price of the lowest bid that is marked assuccessful. After recording the MinWin price at step 117, where thereare still bids remaining to be marked, as determined at step 97, thenext highest bid is selected 98 and the steps of FIG. 10 are repeated.

The exemplary electronic auction system may also include a “ProgressiveAuction” format, wherein the electronic auction system awards themerchandise to the top bidders based on price bid. As with the DutchAuction format, the highest price bids are awarded the merchandise up tothe quantity available of the item being auctioned. However, unlike theDutch Auction format, the system awards the merchandise to thesuccessful bidders at different prices depending on the quantity bid. Inthe exemplary embodiment, a successful bidder for a single unit of anitem is awarded the item at the price of the lowest successful bid for asingle unit of the item. A successful bidder for a higher quantity ofthe same item is awarded the item at the price of the lowest successfulbid at that quantity or any lower quantity. For example, a successfulbidder for a quantity of five would pay the lowest price for anysuccessful bid for quantity one through five of the item. The price paidfor a given quantity is termed the “MinWin” price for that quantity. TheProgressive Auction format ensures that successful bidders for aquantity of an item pay the lowest price paid by any other successfulbidder at that quantity level or below. Use of this format leads tolower prices for those who successfully bid on larger quantities of anitem, provides an impetus for volume buying, and therefore leads togreater sales volume.

FIG. 11 illustrates the exemplary Progressive Auction format, whereinbid manager 55 shown in FIG. 6 determines which bids to mark assuccessful or unsuccessful 66 as shown in FIG. 7. Bid manager 55 beginsby sorting 131 the bids by amount of the bid. If there are bidsremaining to be processed, as determined at step 97, the highest bid isselected 98 to be checked. If the bid is determined to be below theminimum bid allowed for the particular merchandise item at step 93, thebid is marked as unsuccessful 99. If not, the bid is checked at step 94to see if the bid quantity can be satisfied. If not, then the bid ismarked 99 as unsuccessful. If the bid quantity is checked and found tobe satisfied at step 94, then the bid is marked as successful 95 and theitem quantity remaining is decremented 96 by the bid quantity. TheMinWin price is then recorded 137. The MinWin price is the price abovewhich a new bidder must bid in order to be successful in the ProgressiveAuction format were the auction to close at that moment. The MinWinprice is, in general, the bid price of the lowest bid at the current bidquantity or lower that is marked as successful. After recording theMinWin price 137, if there are still bids remaining to be marked, thenext highest bid is selected 98 and the steps of FIG. 11 are repeated.

The exemplary electronic auction system may also include a “Buy Or Bid”format wherein the electronic auction system awards merchandise tobidders who place bids at or above a posted selling price. The itemremains for sale until the available quantity is purchased. Bids thatare below the posted selling price are maintained in reserve by thesystem. If a certain sales volume is not achieved in a specified periodof time, the electronic auction system automatically reduces the priceby a predetermined amount or a predetermined percentage of the price andupdates the merchandise catalog page accordingly. The lower price may beat or below some of the bids already in the bid database. If such bidsare present, they are then converted to orders and the quantityavailable is reduced accordingly. Similarly, if a certain sales volumeis exceeded in a specified period of time, the electronic auction systemautomatically increases the price by a set amount or by a set percentageof the price and updates the merchandise page accordingly. Theseautomatic price changes allow the seller to respond quickly to marketconditions while keeping the price of the merchandise as high aspossible to the sellers benefit.

FIG. 12 illustrates the exemplary Buy Or Bid format whereby bid manager55, as shown in FIG. 6, determines which bids to mark as successful orunsuccessful 66, as shown in FIG. 7. Bid manager 55 begins by sorting151 the bids by amount. If there are bids remaining to be processed, asdetermined at step 97, the highest bid is selected 98 to be checked. Ifthe bid is below the current price of the merchandise item, asdetermined at 93, then the bid is marked 99 unsuccessful. If the bid isnot below the current price, as determined at 93, then the bid ischecked 94 to see if the bid quantity can be satisfied. If not, the bidis marked as unsuccessful 99. If the bid quantity can be satisfied, thenthe bid is converted into an order 155 at the current price of the itemand the item's quantity remaining is decremented 96. The bids remainingto be processed, as determined at 97, are then checked and the steps ofFIG. 11 are repeated. From time to time, the current price of themerchandise item may be raised or lowered either by manual input from anoperator 300 as shown in FIG. 1 or by automatically using the “markdown”feature described below with reference to FIG. 14.

FIG. 13 illustrates in more detail the step of determining if the bidquantity can be satisfied 94. If the bid quantity is determined to beless than the available quantity of the merchandise item at step 171,then the test is found satisfied at step 174. If not, then the bid ischecked at 172 to see if the bidder is willing to accept a reducedquantity. When placing a bid, the bidder indicates its willingness toaccept a partial quantity in the event that an insufficient quantity ofthe item is available to satisfy the bid if successful. If the bidder isfound willing to accept a reduced quantity at 172, then the test isfound satisfied at 174. If not, the test fails at 173 and the bid ismarked as unsuccessful at, for example, 99 in FIG. 9.

The exemplary electronic auction system also includes a “markdown”feature, wherein the electronic auction system awards merchandise tobuyers who place orders at the currently posted selling price. The itemremains on sale until the available quantity is purchased. If a certainsales volume is not achieved in a specified period of time, theelectronic auction system automatically reduces the price by a setamount or a set percentage and updates the merchandise catalog pageaccordingly. This lower price encourages buyers to take advantage of thenew price. If a certain sales volume is exceeded in a specified periodof time, the electronic auction system automatically increases the priceby a set amount or a set percentage and updates the merchandise pageaccordingly. These automatic price changes allow the system to respondto market conditions while keeping the prices of the merchandise as highas possible to the seller's benefit.

FIG. 14 illustrates the exemplary Markdown price adjustment featurewhereby auction manager 26, as shown in FIG. 4, periodically adjusts 54the sales prices or minimum bid prices, of the merchandise itemsaccording to a predetermined schedule as shown in FIG. 6. If moremerchandise items are found in the merchandise database at 181, amerchandise item is selected 183 for Markdown. If a Markdown event hasoccurred for the item, as determined at 184, the item's price isadjusted 185 according to the schedule preset for the individual item.Alternatively, the adjustment could be relative to prices offered forthe merchandise. The merchandise item is then updated 186 in thedatabase with the new sale price or minimum bid price. The steps of FIG.14 are then repeated for each successive merchandise item in themerchandise database.

The exemplary electronic auction system may include a “Proxy Bidding”feature that may be applied to any of the auction formats describedabove. FIG. 7 fully describes auction manager 26 including the ProxyBidding feature. When Proxy Bidding is employed, a bidder places a bidfor the maximum amount they are willing to pay. The electronic auctionsystem, however, only displays the amount necessary to win the item upto the amount of the currently high proxy bids of other bidders.Typically, the currently high bids display an amount that is one biddingincrement above the second highest bid or bids, although a percentageabove the second highest bids may be used as well. When a new bidderplaces a bid that is above a currently displayed high bid, the proxyfeature will, in general, cause the currently high bid to move up to anamount higher than the new bid, up to the maximum amount of thecurrently high bidder's proxy bid. Once a new bidder places a bid inexcess of the currently high bidder's proxy bid, the new bid becomes thecurrent high bid and the previous high bid becomes the second highestbid. This feature allows bidders to participate in the electronicauction without revealing to the other bidders the extent to which theyare willing to increase their bids, while maintaining control of theirmaximum bid without closely monitoring the bidding. Participation isengaged in automatically on the bidder's behalf by the inventive system.The feature guarantees proxy bidders the lowest possible price up to aspecified maximum without requiring frequent inquiries as to the stateof the bidding.

A variety of different auction formats may be implemented in addition tothose described above. The exemplary electronic auction system may, forexample, also employ a “Floating Closing Time” feature whereby theauction for a particular item is automatically closed if no new bids arereceived within a predetermined time interval. This feature wouldtypically be implemented in a manner similar to that used to closeauctions of old items, as shown at step 53 in FIG. 6. This featureforces the bidding activity to occur within a shorter amount of timethan would otherwise be achieved because bidders are aware that the itemwill automatically close if no new bids have been received in a timelymanner. Thus, bidders have an incentive to stay active in the biddingprocess to avoid closure of an item before maximum, and most potentiallywinning, bids have been entered. The Floating Closing Time feature alsoallows more items to be auctioned during a period of time since eachitem is closed once bidding activity ceases; the bidding period is notprotracted to an artificial length as is the case when an item closes ata preset date and time. The Floating Closing Time feature of the presentinvention may be employed either in conjunction with or independent of afixed closing time for an item. When employed in conjunction with afixed closing time, the auction is closed either when the preset fixedtime period has expired for the item or when no bidding activity hasoccurred within a preset time interval. This forces the bidding to ceaseat a particular time in case the bidding activity becomes artificiallyprotracted.

Thus, a method and system for validating a bid are disclosed. A generaldescription of the present invention as well as an exemplary embodimentof the present invention has been set forth above. Those skilled in theart to which the present invention pertains will recognize and be ableto practice additional variations in the methods and system describedwhich fall within the teachings of this invention. For example, althoughthe exemplary embodiment of the present invention chooses winning bidsaccording to monetary amount included in the bid, preference for bidsmay also be determined according to time of submission, quantity ofmerchandise bid for, total bid value, or some other combination of thesecharacteristics. Accordingly, all such modifications and additions aredeemed to be within the scope of the invention which is to be limitedonly by the claims appended hereto.

1. A method of creating a new customer record when validating a bidreceived by an electronic auction system, the method comprising:receiving a bid from each of a plurality of bidders for a plurality ofitems in an electronic auction, each bid containing bid informationincluding price and quantity validating each bid to enter the bid in abid database, the validating of each bid comprising: determining, by aprocessor, an existence of the customer record for the customer in acustomer database using the bid information; based on a determinationthat the customer record does not exist for the customer, creating a newcustomer record as part of the validating of the bid; and placing thecreated new customer record in the customer database; and validating thebid information of the bid to ensure that bid requirements aresatisfied, the validating of the bid information occurring after thecustomer record is created and placed in the customer database; andbased on a successful validation of the bid, entering the bid for theitem in a bid database; and awarding one or more items from theplurality of items to each of a plurality of successful bidders of theplurality of bidders at different item prices based on the quantityspecified in the bid information by each of the plurality of successfulbidders.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: validating thebid information; and placing the bid information in a bid database. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the bid information fromthe customer includes receiving the bid information via at least one ofa web-based bid form or electronic mail.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the receiving of the bid information includes receiving anindication of whether the customer wants to be kept informed of currenthigh bids via electronic mail.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving further bid information from the customer viaelectronic mail; validating the further bid information; and placing thefurther bid information in a bid database.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the validating the bid information of the bid includesdetermining if an appropriate bid amount has been entered.
 7. Anon-transitory machine-readable medium containing instructions which,when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system toperform operations, the operations comprising: receiving a bid from eachof a plurality of bidders for a plurality of items in an electronicauction, each bid containing bid information including price andquantity; validating each bid to enter the bid in a bid database, thevalidating of each bid comprising: determining, by a processor, anexistence of the customer record for the customer in a customer databaseusing the bid information; based on a determination that the customerrecord does not exist for the customer, creating a new customer recordas part of the validating of the bid; and placing the created newcustomer record in the customer database; and validating the bidinformation of the bid to ensure that bid requirements are satisfied,the validating of the bid information occurring after the customerrecord is created and placed in the customer database; and based on asuccessful validation of the bid, entering the bid for the item in a biddatabase and awarding one or more items from the plurality of items toeach of a plurality of successful bidders of the plurality of bidders atdifferent item prices based on the price and quantity specified in thebid information by each of the plurality of successful bidders.
 8. Themachine-readable medium of claim 7, further comprising: validating thebid information; and placing the bid information in a bid database. 9.The machine-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the receiving of the bidinformation from the customer includes receiving the bid information viaat least one of a web-based bid form or electronic mail.
 10. Themachine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the receiving of the bidinformation includes receiving an indication of whether the customerwants to be kept informed of current high bids via electronic mail. 11.The machine-readable medium of claim 7, further comprising: receivingfurther bid information from the customer via electronic mail;validating the further bid information; and placing the further bidinformation in a bid database.